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Nathaniel Lee
Nathaniel Lee (?1653 - 6 May 1692) was an English poet and playwright. Life Overview Lee, son of a clergyman of Hatfield, was educated at Westminster School and Cambridge. After leaving the university, he went to London, and joined the stage both as actor and author. He was taken up by Rochester and others of the same dissolute set, led a loose life, and drank himself into Bedlam, where he spent 4 years. After his recovery he lived mainly upon charity, and met his death from a fall under the effects of a carouse. His tragedies, which, with much bombast and frequent untrained flights of imagination, have occasional fire and tenderness, are generally based on classical subjects. The principal are The Rival Queens, Theodosius, and Mithridates. He also wrote a few comedies, and collaborated with Dryden in an adaptation of Œdipus, and in The Duke of Guise.John William Cousin, "Lee, Nathaniel," A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London: Dent / New York: Dutton, 1910, 233. Wikisource, Web, Feb. 5, 2018. Family Lee is said to have been a son of Richard Lee, D.D. The latter was educated at Cambridge, took holy orders, accepted the solemn league and covenant, and adhered through the civil wars to the parliament. Preferment was liberally bestowed on him. He held at the same time the rectories of Hatfield, Hertfordshire (from 1647), of Little Gaddesden (from 1655}, and of Berkhampstead, St. Peter (from 1656), besides the mastership of Royston Hospital, Leicester, from 1650. He became chaplain to Monck, duke of Albemarle, After the Restoration, in 1663, in St. Mary's Church, Cambridge, and at St. Paul's Cathedral (29 Nov.), he preached a sermon n which he recanted all his earlier opinions and confessed remorse for having taken the covenant, and for having expressed approval of Charles I's death.Lee, 364. Youth and education Nathaniel, perhaps the 2nd son, was probably born in 1653. He was educated at Westminster School, and, according to Lord Rochester, was "well lasht" by the head-master, Busby. On 7 July 1665 he was admitted to Trinity College, Cambridge, and earned a B.A. in January 1667-8 (information from W. Aldis Wright, esq.) To a collection of 'Threnodia' by Cambridge students on the death of his father's patron, George Monck, duke of Albemarle, he contributed an ode in English verse (cf. Nichols, Miscellany Poems, vii. 86). As a young man he is said to have been handsome and "of an ingenious conversation," and he seems to have obtained an entrance into fashionable society before leaving Cambridge. The Duke of Buckingham, who became chancellor of the university in 1671, is credited with having "brought him up to town," and with having wholly neglected him on his arrival there (Spence, Anecdotes, p. 62). But Lee came to know Rochester and other of his neglectful patron's abandoned friends, and he lost no time in imitating their vices, to the permanent injury of his health. Career To earn a livelihood Lee originally sought to become an actor, and in 1672, according to Downes's Roscius Anglicanus (34), was allotted the part of Duncan at the Dorset Garden Theatre in Davenant's adaptation of Macbeth, but his acute nervousness rendered the experiment a failure, although he was reported to be an admirable elocutionist. Oldys assigns a similar result to his attempt to play a part in Behn's Forced Marriage; or, The jealous bridegroom in the same season, but Downes assigns that disaster to Otway. Although Lee appears to have undertaken the small rôle of Captain of the Watch in November 1672 in the Fatal Jealousy, a play assigned to Neville Payne, he very soon abandoned acting for the writing of tragedies.Lee, 365. In that pursuit he achieved, despite his extravagances, much popular success. The actor Mohun, who filled the chief rôles in Lee's pieces, is reported to have repeatedly expressed his admiration at the author's effective mode of reading his plays aloud to the company. "Unless I were to play it," the actor is reported to have said to Lee of one of his parts, "as well as you read it, to what purpose should I undertake it?" The plots of Lee's tragedies were mainly drawn from classical history, but he treated his authorities with the utmost freedom, and at times seems to have wilfully travestied them. His earliest effort, Nero, produced in 1675, was chiefly written in heroic couplets (London, 1675, 1696, 1735). Like its 3 immediate successors, it was originally performed at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. Hart figured in the title-role and Mohun as Britannicus. In 1676 Lee wrote 2 plays, also in rhyme, Gloriana; or, The court of Augustus Caesar (London, 1676, 4to), and Sophonisba; or, Hannibal's overthrow (London, 1676 and 1693, 4to; 5th edition 1704, 1709, 1735). The latter piece, for which Purcell wrote the earliest music prepared by him for the stage, treats of Hannibal's legendary passion for a lady of Capua, and was dedicated to the Duchess of Portsmouth. It was always admired, according to Genest, by "the fair sex." Rochester asserts that Hannibal was presented as "a whining amorous fool." The play was performed in the tennis-court at Oxford during commemoration week in July 1680 (cf. Wood, Life and Times, ii. 490), and Dryden wrote a special prologue for the occasion. Lee's reputation was not definitely secured till 1677, when his best-known tragedy, The Rival Queens; or, The death of Alexander the Great — his 1st essay in blank verse — proved a triumphant success (London, 1677, 1684, 1694 ; 4th edit. 1702, 4to). De La Calprenede's novel Cassandre seems to have suggested some of the scenes. The jealousy of Alexander's 1st wife, Roxana, for his 2nd wife, Statira, is the leading theme. In this play 1st appeared the usually misquoted line, "when Greeks join'd Greeks then was the tug of war" (act iv. sc. 1; Works, 1734, iii. 26o) ; but the verses beginning "See the conquering hero comes," which were introduced into the play (act ii. sc. 1) in late acting versions (cf. ed. 1785, p. 21), have been repeatedly assigned to Lee in error; they were written by Dr. Thomas Morell for Handel's oratorio Joshua in 1747, and were then transferred to Handel's Judas Maccabæus. In the 1st representation of the Rival Queens Hart played Alexander and Mohun "honest old Clytus." Dryden joined in the general chorus of praise, and when the piece was published, with a fulsome dedication to the Duchess of Portsmouth, he prefixed verses in which Lee's delineation of the passions was commended for sincerity and warmth. Mithridates, King of Pontus, in blank verse (London, 1678, 4to), was 1st acted at Drury Lane in March 1678, with Mohun in the title-rôle, and it sustained Lee's position in popular esteem. Dryden contributed an epilogue, and the play was acted by amateurs at the Banqueting House, Whitehall, when Princess Anne appeared as Semandra. In 1679 Dryden gave practical proof of his regard for Lee by inviting his aid in an adaptation of Sophocles's Œdipus. The general plan and the 1st and 3rd acts are assigned to Dryden, the rest to Lee. The piece was produced at the Duke's Theatre in Dorset Gardens. In spite of "the rant and fustian" which Lee introduced, and his revolting treatment of the closing episode, the tragedy took prodigiously, being "acted ten days together." Œdipus and Jocasta were played respectively by Betterton and his wife. At the same theatre Lee produced in 1680 his next 2 tragedies, Cæsar Borgia (London, 1680, 4to), with a prologue by Dryden, and Betterton in the title-role, and Theodosius; or, The force of love (London, 1680, 1684, 1692, 1697, 1708), with the same actor in the part of Varanes (dedicated to the Duchess of Richmond). Caesar Borgia, whose plot was drawn from the Pharamond of Gomberville, abounds in villanies and murders, and is again in blank verse. In Theodosius the blank verse is diversified by many excursions into rhyme. In 1681 Lee wrote a 4th play for Dorset Gardens Theatre, Lucius Junius Brutus: The father of his country, a tragedy in blank verse (London, 1689, 4to). It is partly based on Mile, de Scudery's Clelie. Some lines on the immoral effeminacy of Tarquin were interpreted as a reflection on Charles II, and on the 3rd night the further representations were prohibited by Arlington the lord chamberlain. In 1703 Gildon produced a free adaptation with the scenes and names of the characters transferred to Italy ; this was entitled The Patriot; or, The Italian conspiracy, and was duly licensed and acted at Drury Lane. In Tryall of Skill: A new session of the poets, 1704, Lee is introduced as storming wildly at Gildon for ruining his Brutus.Lee, 366. In November of 1681 Lee's comedy the Princess of Cleve (founded on Madame La Fayette's romance of the same name) was acted at Dorset Gardens for the 1st time. It is singularly coarse in plot and language. Dryden wrote a prologue and epilogue, which appear in his Works, but were not published with the play, which 1st appeared in print 8 years later. Lee in the 1st act makes a reference to the recent death of his patron Rochester under the disguise of "Count Rosidore." Nemours, the chief character, was played by Betterton. With a view to removing the bad impression created by his Brutus, Lee wrote an adulatory poem To the Duke York on his Return, in 1682 (Nichols, Miscellany Poems, i. 46). In 1682 Lee induced Dryden to join him in an historical tragedy called The Duke of Guise, in accordance with a promise made by the great poet after they had collaborated in Œdipus. The plot was readily capable of an application to current politics, and it championed the king and tories far more directly than Brutus had favoured the whigs. Dryden was only responsible for the first scene of act i., act iv. and half of act v. (Dryden, Vindication of the Duke of Guise, Scott's edition, vii. 139). 2 of Lee's scenes were introduced from the Massacre of Paris, a manuscript piece already written by him, but apparently refused a license (cf. Princess of Cleve, ded.). The piece was produced on 4 December 1682 at the Theatre Royal, soon after Davenant's and Betterton's companies had effected their well-known union. Betterton assumed the character of the duke, who was clearly intended to suggest the Duke of York. The public were excited, and Hunt and Shadwell attacked the authors in the interest of the whigs, and Dryden replied to his critics in his Vindication of the Duke of Guise (1683). Dryden there confuted the popular political interpretation, and in the dedication of the published piece to Laurence Hyde, earl of Rochester, he made a like disclaimer in the joint names of Lee and himself. Finally, in 1684 Lee's last tragedy, Constantine the Great, was produced at the Theatre Royal, with Betterton in the title-rôle and Mrs. Barry as Fausta. The epilogue was written by Dryden and had a political flavor. Lee was himself responsible for the prologue, and after bitterly bidding his hearers keep their sons "from the sin of rhyme," reminded them :﻿How Spencer starv'd, how Cowley mourn'd, :﻿How Butler's faith and service were returned. Last years A worse fate was in store for himself. In spite of his dramatic successes, Lee's vices grew with his years, and his rubicund countenance testified to his intemperate habits. His aristocratic patrons were gradually estranged. 3 of his published plays, Brutus, Princess of Cleve, and Mithridates, he had dedicated to the Earl of Dorset. The Earl of Pembroke, to whom he dedicated his Cæsar Borgia, is said to have invited him to Wilton, where he outstayed his welcome in an attempt, the butler feared, to empty the cellar. His indulgences affected his brain, or, at any rate, aggravated an original tendency to insanity. In many of his plays he had dwelt on madness, and had described with startling realism "a poor lunatic" in his Cæsar Borgia. Before the catastrophe actually came, Dryden wrote of "poor Nat Lee … upon the verge of madness." His mind completely failed at the close of 1684, and he was moved to Bethlehem Hospital on 11 November of that year. Tom Brown, who, in his Letters from the Dead, represents Lee in hell as singing a filthy song in Dryden's company, declares that while under restraint he wrote a tragedy in 5-and-20 acts (Brown, Works, 1730, ii. 187–8). Many instances are on record of his epigrammatic replies to inquisitive visitors, who included Sir Roger L'Estrange and Dean Lockier. To L'Estrange Lee is said to have addressed the line, "I'm strange Lee alter'd, you are still L'Estrange," but the same play upon words appears in the poem addressed by Robert Wilde to the dramatist's father. The author of a contemporary Satire on the Poets applies to Lee lines from his own ‘Cæsar Borgia’ in a well-known stanza beginning — :﻿There in a den removed from human eyes, :Possest with muse, the brainsick poet lies. After 5 years' detention Lee's reason sufficiently recovered to warrant his release, but his literary work was done. A pension of 10l. a year was allowed him by the company at the Theatre Royal, where his laurels had been won, and where he seems to have been popular with the actors. He told Mountfort, whose rendering of his Mithridates had specially pleased him, "If I should write a hundred plays, I'd write a part for thy mouth each."Lee, 367. The Princess of Cleve was now first published in 1689. A piece written in earlier life, the Massacre of Paris (i.e. of St. Bartholomew), 2 scenes of which he had already introduced into the ‘Duke of Guise,’ was 1st produced at Drury Lane in 1690, when Betterton played the Admiral of France, and Mrs. Betterton Marguerite, and it was published in the same year. But Lee could not long resist temptation. According to Oldys, when returning 1 night overladen with wine, from the Bear and Harrow in Butcher Row, through Clare Market to his lodgings in Duke Street, Lee "fell down on the ground as some say, according to others on a bulk, and was killed or stifled in the snow" (sic). He was buried in the parish church of St. Clement Danes on 6 May 1692 (Beg.) Writing A collected edition of Lee's tragedies appeared in 1713 in 2 volumes. A later edition was issued in 1734, but some title-pages are dated 2 years later. Many of Lee's plays long held the stage. The Rival Queens, known by its 2nd title of Alexander the Great from 1772, was, according to Colley Cibber, in greater favor with the town than any other play in the early years of the 18th century. Its success, Cibber hinted, was due to the skill and fame of the actors (Mohun, Mountfort, and Betterton) who filled the leading parts, rather than to the literary merits of the piece. The rdle of Alexander was one of Betterton's most popular assumptions, and when he resigned the part, the play lost its hold on the playgoers' favor. Lee's tragedy remained a stock piece at the chief London theatres for nearly 60 years. Genest notes 21 revivals. Among the most interesting were 2 representations at Covent Garden Theatre (1 June 1808 and 17 November 1822), in which Charles Kemble and Betty respectively played Alexander. Mrs. Powell appeared many times as Roxana. A revised version by J.P. Kemble was published in 1815. Gn 23 June 1823 Edmund Kean appeared as Alexander at Covent Garden, with Mrs. Glover as Roxana. Theodoeius was hardly shorter-lived than Alexander. Editions appeared in 1752, 1779, and 1782, and an altered version, called The Force of Love, was published in Dublin in 1786. Kemble appeared as Varanes at Drury Lane, 20 January 1797, with Mrs. Powell as Pulcheria. Mithridates kept the stage for 60 years. In 1797 Kemble arranged a revival and carefully revised the piece, assigning the part of Ziphares to himself and that of Semandra to Mrs. Siddons. But Sheridan judged the experiment ridiculous, and the rehearsals were stopped, whereupon Kemble published his revised edition, and it was reissued in 1802. Kemble also put Œdipus into rehearsal about the same time, but Mrs. Siddons's objections to the part of Jocasta led to an abandonment of the performance. Sir Walter Scott notes a revival of Œdipus about 1778, when the audience, revolted by the plot, left the theatre after the 3rd act. Tne Massacre of Paris was revived, after an interval of 30 years, at Covent Garden in 1745, on account of its protestant bias and its applicability to the Jacobite rebellion. It was acted for 3 nights (31 Oct., 1-2 Nov.) Lee was a student of the Elizabethans. In Mithridates he claimed to have "mixed Shakespeare with Fletcher" (ded.) In his dedication of Cæsar Borgia to the 7th Earl of Pembroke, he reminded his patron of his ambition to stand towards him in the same relations as Ben Jonson stood to the 3rd earl. He consoled himself for his disappointment at the suppression of his Brutus by the reflection that Jonson's Catiline, and even Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, had been subjected to somewhat similar insults. Throughout his tragedies Lee borrows phrases and turns of thought from Shakespeare. But it is in their barbaric extravagances rather than their rich vein of poetry that Lee resembles Shakespeare's contemporaries, and hardly any Elizabethan was quite so bombastic in expression and incident as Lee proved himself in his Cæsar Borgia. "It has often been observed against me," he wrote in the dedication of his Theodosius, "that I abound in ungoverned fancy." Yet sparks of genius glimmer about the meaningless and indecent rhapsodies which characterise most of his plays. Rochester, in his 'Session of the Poets,' :Confess'd that he had a musical note. :But sometimes strained so hard that it rattled in the throat. Colley Cibber describes Lee's "furious fustian and turgid rant," but admits that his verse displays "a few great beauties," although even these have "extravagant blemishes." Steele, 'writing in the Spectator (No. 438, on "Anger," 23 July 1712), quotes from the Rival Queens a passionate speech of Alexander (act iii. 8C. 1) to illustrate "passion in its purity, without mixture of reason ... drawn by a mad poet." Addison's criticism is charitable and just. Lee's thoughts.' he writes in the Spectator No. 39, "are ... frequently lost in such a cloud of words that it is hard to see the beauty of them. There is an infinite fire in his works, but so involved in smoke that it does not appear in half its lustre. He frequently succeeds in the passionate part of the tragedy, but more particularly when he slackens his efforts and eases the style of those epithets and metaphors in which he so much abounds." "Dedicating Lee" is the title given the dramatist in the Satyr on the Poets (State Poems, 1698, pt. iii. p. 57). John Dennis calls him "fiery Lee" in his prologue to Gildon's Patriot. Steele, in his prologue to Mrs. Manley's Lucius, 1717, writes of him approvingly, and states that his success as a dramatist was due to his sedulous endeavor to adapt his pieces to the taste of every class of his audience. Recognition A portrait of Lee appears in the 'Monthly Mirror.' 1812, xiii. 76. It is there described 'as the first that has been published.' and the painting from which it was engraved as 'the only portrait that now exists, or that probably was ever taken.' S. L. 364 Publications Poetry *''To the Prince and Princess of Orange upon their marriage''. 1677.Nathaniel Lee, English Poetry, 1579-1830, Center for Applied Technologies in the Humanities, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University. Web, July 31, 2016. *''To the Duke upon His Return''. London: Jacob Tonson, 1682. *''On the Death of Mrs. Behn''. London: Abel Roper, 1689. *''On Their Majesties Coronation''. London: Abel Roper, 1689. Plays *''The Tragedy of Nero, Emperour of Rome''. London: T.R. & N.T., for James Magnus & Richard Bentley, 1675. *''Sophonisba; or, Hannibal's overthrow: A tragedy''. London: James Magnes & Richard Bentley, 1676. *''Gloriana; or, The court of Augustus Caesar''. London: James Magnes & Richard Bentley, 1676. *''The Rival Queens; or, The death of Alexander the Great''. London: James Magnes & Richard Bentley, 1677. *''Mithridates, King of Pontus''. London: R.E., for James Magnes & Richard Bentley, 1678. *''Oedipus: A tragedy'' (with John Dryden). London: Richard Bentley & M. Magnes, 1679. *''Caesar Borgia: Son of Pope Alexander the Sixth''. London: R.E., for Richard Bentley & M. Magnes, 1679. *''Theodosius; or, The force of love: A tragedy''. London: Richard Bentley & M. Magnes, 1680. *''Lucius Junius Brutus: Father of his country: A tragedy''. London: Richard Tonson & Jacob Tonson, 1681. *''The Duke of Guise: A tragedy''. London: T.H., for Richard Bentley / Jacob Tonson, 1683. *''Constantine the Great: A tragedy''. London:H. Hills jun., for Richard Bently / Jacob Tonson, 1684. *''The Princess of Cleve: The most famed romance''. London: Abel Roper, 1689. *''The Massacre of Paris: A tragedy''. London: Richard Bentley & M. Magnes, 1690. Collected editions *''The Works''. (1 volume), London: Richard Bentley & S. Maagnes, 1687; (2 volumes), Richard Wellington, 1713. *''The Works'' (edited by Thomas B Stroup; Arthur L Cooke). (2 volumes), New Brunswick, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1954. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Nathaniel Lee, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Aug. 1, 2016. See also *List of British poets *List of English-language playwrights References * . Wikisource, Web, Feb. 5, 2018. Notes External links ;Poems *[http://spenserians.cath.vt.edu/TextRecord.php?action=GET&textsid=33642 Prologue to Theodosius] *[http://spenserians.cath.vt.edu/TextRecord.php?action=GET&textsid=33661 Constantine the Great: Prologue] *Nathaniel Lee at Poetry Nook (2 poems) ;About *Nathaniel Lee in the Encyclopædia Britannica *Nathaniel Lee at English Poetry, 1579-1830 *Nathaniel Lee at Find a Grave * Lee, Nathaniel Category:English dramatists and playwrights Category:Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Category:1653 births Category:1692 deaths Category:People educated at Westminster School, London Category:17th-century dramatists and playwrights Category:People educated at Charterhouse School Category:English male dramatists and playwrights Category:17th-century poets Category:English-language poets Category:English poets Category:Poets Category:Poets hospitalized for mental illness